Who will be the four champions?

Portsmouth will run away with the Class I title with ease.I can't really predict the other classes because I don't follow them as closely.

I would say Londonderry or Trinity are the heavy favorites in Class L. In Class M I feel that Winnisquam or Campbell are the favorites. In Class I Portsmouth is a powerhouse, but don't count our St. Thomas, and in Class S I feel that Coach Hastings will have his Derryfield squad geared up for a Championship Run, Derryfield is my Class S pick to win the championship.

Earlier in the season I said Keene, so I'm going to stick with it, I think they handled Trinity pretty well last time they met. I like two Dover private schools in class I & S, Its hard to beat good teams three times in a row. I say St Thomas beats Portsmouth, and Portsmouth Christian Academy beats Derryfield. In class M, It's all about pitching and hitting and I think Franklin has the best combination of that. Terrible deffense could trip them up, but their side of the bracket will be the easiest.

Flip a coin for Trinity, Londonderry and Keene. Look for Nashua South , Alvirne & Goffstown to make some noise. The top 3 are clearly the best, but upsets will happen. One & done. One of these six will deservingly win it. Should be a fun tourney.

I think the first round will be where the upsets happen, some school with have one real good pitcher who will step up and win a close game. Londonderry and Trinity both have more than one very good pitcher so if they are both still alive after the first round my money is on one of them. I like Londonderry, they have three top starting pitchers plus great offensive players like Neverman, Caron, Finnegan, etc.

Does anyone see any upsets in this year's class L tournament? The only one I see is Central High over Nashua North. I believe Cole Warren is one of the most dominate pitchers in the league, and he proved it with 16 strikeouts against Exeter last Friday. I think any team in the state including Keene and Londonderry would struggle with Warren on the mound.

Ok for all those you think Portsmouth should be in Class L (and I wish they were also) here is the scoop direct from the AD Rus Wilson this afternoon.

Schools are put into Classes by population by NHIAA. If you are in a class and you want to go up, all sports have to go up.

Every program has the option of playing 40% of their games out of their class (up or down). For the last two years Portsmouth Baseball and Basketball has requested games with Class L teams. All requests have been denied. Here is the reason he game me.

With only 18 games, Class L teams would have to cancel other games and they won't do that.

Class L teams do not want to play Class I teams because its a no win situation. If they win the game no big deal - if they lose its bad for them. Rus noted its the same reason Portsmouth rejects requests from Class M and S schools to play Portsmouth.

That's the information I have received so if these facts are accurate the Portsmouth Class L vs Class I debate is a mute point.

NHmonty,
I have requested scrimmages the past two seasons but Hop had too many at that point!

Iron,

Rus didn't mention scrimmages - I may be mistaken but I think Hop told me schools had a limit of two scrimmages this year? We had to scramble to get our last one because of weather - we played Epping and that was a waste. Last year we scrimmaged Ipswich, MA and Winnacunnet.

I would much rather play teams better than us and get the snot beat of of us as long as the team was getting better to play within its division.

Just one guys opinion which may not be shared by many. This is self-serving on my part because I want my kid to play against the best, that's the only way his is going to improve.

Improve??? Is that possible??

When I first started coaching I was all about adding that 20th game as that allowed me to play everyone in L. When Portsmouth dropped down and the NHIAA extended the season one more game I still got to play everyone. Now I am not sure I would want the 20th game. Some coaches do, and that is fine, but it doesn't sit well with me that some tourney spots are decided by one team playing an extra game.

That scrimmage restriction was apparently only in I. I had 8 scrimmages this year, and could have had more.
I would love to play Portsmouth, it would be a good game.

Londonderry v. Portsmouth, I love the sound of that any chance we can get the ball rolling on a game after the season? What would make this more interesting would be if this game would also pair two state champs against each other, I don't want to get ahead of myself but just to put a bug in everyone's ear. Something like this would be great for NH Baseball. Good luck to both squads in the post season.

I know this is a whatifsports kind of topic now but it'd be fun to see a best of 3. I think Portsmouth could steal 1 game but I don't think they could win 2 of 3 vs. Londonderry. Just my opinon as someone with no attachments to either program who has seen them both play this year.

In Class M Campbell is my pick. Solid defense all around with strong hitting. Winnisquam bats seem to have cooled. Franklin did impress in the come from behind against Winnisquam, but I still like Campbell.

In Class S - Derryfield. Jeff Hastings is a great coach and always has his kids ready for the big ones.

Jeff Hastings is a tremendous coach, myself I played for him one season. Nothing but great things to say about him.